That little shit had pick-pocketed me!

“Huh? What’s wrong?” It was Elizabeth that had asked. Charlotte was currently looking at me with frightened eyes. Did she perhaps think I was talking about her?

“A little boy pick-pocketed me today!” I begin explaining in a rush of words.

“W-what?! So you can’t pay for food?!” Crystal had suddenly asked, seemingly concerned for me.

“No, no, nothing like that. I still have half of my money, luckily.” Crystal had wiped her forehead after I had explained that I still had money left.

“For a second I thought that you were going to starve.” Elizabeth had just jokingly said, but I really wasn’t in the mood for jokes. That fucking kid had deceived me to get close and steal my money.

“Sir, are you going to pay?” The man that was manning the cash register had spoken up.

“Ah, yes. Sorry. How much is it?”

“$88” It was a bit on the expensive side, compared to what I was thinking of but it didn’t matter. I a $100 note out of my wallet and hand it over to the man. He hands me back two $20 notes and two $2 coins. At the same time, a notification came up informing me of the payment.

Notice!

You have purchased some essentials.

The total cost was $88.

You have $1334 remaining.

Would you like to put your money in a bank

account linked to a credit card?

The credit card can only be used by placing

your finger on the pad located on card-reader,

therefore it is safe from theft.

Yes.

No.

It can’t be stolen?!? Fuck yeah. My fingers lash out, violently attacking the ‘Yes’ button.

Important Notice!

All your money has been transferred into a bank account and

subsequently a credit card has been placed into your inventory.

My inventory? So, where I keep my resume and wallet? I open my inventory by simply thinking 'inventory'. An empty space with a portal connecting it to this world appears. In the space is a copy of my resume and now a lone credit card.

Reaching out with my hand, I grab the floating credit card. It might be worth mentioning that Inventories were only visible to the people that had connected to them.

Inventories were also not safe from theft. Why, you might ask? Simply because if you want to open someone else's inventory, you only need to be in physical contact with them and think inventory.

Inventories were really useful, you could store all kinds of things in them. They had a weight limit and also a quantity limit to their storage capacity but I had heard rumors that if you had enough money and knew where to look you could upgrade them. I for one hadn't used it at all except for the wallet that I had found in an empty draw in my apartment.

"Charlie!~" huh? It was Charlotte.

"What?"

"Stop losing focus!!"

"Alright, alright."

My inventory still open, I start loading everything I had bought into it. The girls behind me had also finished paying for their stuff and had begun doing the same thing.

"What do we do now?" Charlotte really liked asking questions. It wasn't annoying, it's just that she was supposed to be an assistant A.I yet all she did was ask for assistance!

"We are heading home now, you should do the same. Alright?" I explain to Charlotte what we are doing.

"Yep~" That was easy enough.

******

Crystal, Elizabeth and I had all started walking home. The sky was getting dark and the was right on the horizon. It was really quite beautiful, there was only one problem,

"Charlotte. What are you doing on my back?" I have a slightly irritated expression on my face.

"I'm going home~" My face drops.

"That's what I mean, why are you on my back?"

"I'm going home?~"

"What I mean is, why haven't you teleported home yet?"

"Why would I teleport home?" My face is now showing a stupefied expression. The way she was speaking was almost enough to actually convince me that I was wrong and behind stupid.

"Why wouldn't you? I don't think you can walk there."

"How are you going to get home then, Charlie?!" She showed a worried expression. I'm really confused now.

"I'm going to walk home?"

"Then I am too!" We hadn't got anywhere at all.

"How do you walk to your office? I never saw any door?" I begin digging deeper into this.

"Huh? My office is my office? Not my home..." What? She has an office and a home? She was quite the loaded kid.

"Okay then, why are you walking with us? Shouldn't you be going to your house?"

"I am! My house is with you..." Her face goes bright again and I feel her face dig into my shoulder. Fuckkkk. She decided she was living with me? How the fuck was I going to smooth this over?

Crystal and Elizabeth start staring daggers at me like I had committed a horrid crime. I didn't like this at all so I decided to just shut up and deal with it. It was never in my personality to talk to others if I didn't have to. I thought that it didn't apply to these three but I guess it was only to some extent.

******

Charlotte still on my back and Crystal and Elizabeth beside me, we watch as the elevator doors open. After they had fully opened we all hopped in and Elizabeth proceeded to dial in '114'. It really was a tall building.

"Thanks for all the help with finding the supermarket, Elizabeth." Elizabeth turned towards me and smiled at my words. She had drastically changed since just a few minutes before.

"Don't worry about it." She gives another smile. I notice her purple eyes again. They were really interesting, yet they were only purple. I wonder how much attention my silver mirror eyes receive.

*psshhh*

The elevator door had opened and we started heading towards our apartments. Finally arriving at my door - right beside Crystal and Elizabeth's - I sigh slightly. Today was a long day.

"Oh, right. Wait a second guys," I call out towards Crystal and Elizabeth.

"Huh, yeah? What is it?" They were about to enter their apartment.

"Can you deal with this?" As I say those words I pry Charlotte off of my back and pass her to Crystal. Charlotte's eyes get teary but I ignore it and quickly retreat to my room.

"Welcome home, Charlie." Leaf had welcomed me back while he laid across an entire couch and watched TV - on a TV that he must have only bought today while he was out earlier, before I did the job hunting -.

"You come to virtual reality to watch TV?" My question came off as a bit rude but it really was a question to cure my curiosity.

"You got that right, I can watch 8 times more TV in the same amount of time. Problem?"

"Uhh... No." He had a point. I believe he didn't start work until tomorrow. It wasn't like he could do anything else while he waited. Poor bastard... Cleaning.

"You already eaten, Leaf?"

"Yeah, ramen. Easy and cheap."

"You fucking know it!" It was rare to find a 'Homo sapien' that I related to in some way.

"I'm going to have some too. I bought a few more packets."

"Nice."

'Inventory'

With a thought my inventory had opened. I took the milk out and placed it in the fridge along with the cheese. The fridge was previously quite bare. There was a pickle in one corner and an ice tray at the top, not in the freezer for some reason.

I then took the meat out and put it in the freezer. I had also purchased some random vegetables that could be frozen in the freezer. Corn, peas, carrots, all that frozen stuff that goes in bags pre-cut and prepared. I truly liked the easy way around things.

Oh, I still had some breakfast juice left in my inventory. Odd... I don't remember getting this? Crystal... That little... Ehhh, I can't get mad. Everyone likes juice in the end, I then placed the juice in the fridge.

Now all I had left to unpack was the ramen, bread, salt and sugar and Vegemite. Huh? What's that? A candy bar... Oh. Right, I almost forgot. I'll just give it to her tomorrow. I then place all the rest of the stuff in the cupboards.

"Leaf, if you touch that candy bar I'll make sure you can't have children."

"What?!?" Leaf had frozen up at my words. It was good to know that we had established who was boss around here.

Well fuck, I just realised that I had forgotten butter. It didn't matter, I could just go back and get it tomorrow. Maybe some junk food too... I mean, it's not my real body.

I started boiling some water and placed the ramen in the bowl. After the water had boiled, I added seasonings and all that other stuff until it was just right. Eventually after it had been long enough, I drained the water and started eating.

They weren't that bad, however, it really would be nice to have real meals every now and then.

"Charlie, I'll be getting up early-ish tomorrow, 7 or so. Want me to wake you?" I think about it for a few moments before realising that I didn't have an alarm clock in my room so that would probably be the best option to go with.

"Sure. Thanks Leaf."

"It's cool. Also, I figured out how everyone counters jet lag in this game after logging out."

"Really? You did?

"Yeah, not by myself though. It took some questioning and a whole lot of awkwardness finding out who was a player and who was an NPC, but yeah," I start listening to Leaf intently, "basically, let's say you start playing the second you wake up at 7 in the morning. You go in game and start playing just like usual. Play an entire day in game time and sleep a few hours later than usual, but don't log out. By now, when you wake up at maybe 10:30 in-game it has been 27 hours in-game since you started. In real life it has been something like 3 hours 20 minutes. Making it basically 10:20 in real life, almost perfectly syncing your internal clock with the actual time." Wait, wait, wait.

"You're saying that sleeping in game is also like sleeping in real life for that actual amount of time?"

"Mentally, yes. It won't help if you've been staying up for a few days straight in real life. Or at least, that's what I was told." I really was stupid sometimes. I could have realised all that on my own... Never mind, it was still helpful.

"You can actually be helpful, despite the appearance you give off."

"Deeper than blades..." Was all I heard him mutter as I walked off towards my room. Collapsing in my bed, I prepare to try sleeping in VR for the first time.

Will it be like the real thing? Glancing at my bedside clock, I see that it is 9:27 PM. Early night...

***Scene Change***

Walking down the street was a great way to relax!

The scenery around myself shifted to a devilish shade and I noticed that I wasn't too happy, I almost felt frightened.

I felt movement in my pocket so I looked down only to find a small child putting his hands in and pulling out money!

It was that little boy from earlier when I was pick-pocketed earlier today!

"Thief!" I scream out at the top if my lungs. The boy shows a panicked expression as I had called him out on the pick-pocketing attempt.

"That won't work on me twice you little shit!"

The people nearby all look towards the boy as he starts dashing off after he quickly removed his hands.

The boy took towards a nearby building and ran at it at full speed. As his foot hit the window on the side of the building his other foot continued to go higher up the building until he was making incredible distance up the building.

Trailing close behind him I start running up the building too. Foot after foot I quickly scaled higher and higher up the building.

The boy had looked at me with pleading eyes. He was indicating that he had to do it to survive. He didn't want to steal but that wasn't my problem. Child labor is always an option. As he looked at me, still running up the massive towering building, I was running after him at a no less impressive speed. Our surroundings had blurred at this point.

*booomb*

Was that a sonic boom? Must have been, we really were going quite fast right now. In the beginning I could see the people below me, working in their offices at their computers. The window was now just a black-green blur and even the sky was appearing to melt.

A bird had suddenly struck the kid slightly and he had lost his balance. At this moment he flings away from the building so I imitate him jumping away from the building. We are still going towards the sky at the speed of a bullet so we didn't have anything to worry about.

I lunge towards the boy, grabbing him by the neck. We were currently in between the skyscrapers lining this huge city. We must have been several kilometers up at this point but the buildings didn't show any sign of ending.

The boy sudden did something odd. He somehow started weighing a lot more. Because I was holding on to him, we both slowed down at an impressive speed. Eventually we hit the sweet spot, That split second of weightlessness that happens when we had no vertical speed whatsoever.

Our faces pale. The boy weighed several tons and because we were falling, this did not help at all. If it kept up like this then we would cross the last few kilometers to the ground with ease and in no time.

Looking towards the buildings on both sides, I click my tongue because they are at least a good 10 meters on each side. Trying as hard as I can, I try and will the building closer. It backfires and the buildings both move 10 meters further away on each side.

"Dammit!" This world really hated me.

Looking towards the ground, I notice we gave maybe 300 meters left. The boy was now grinning, his pale face all but gone from before.

Suddenly I notice something I really would regret. Right below the boy and me was Charlotte. Beside her was Crystal and they both stood beside each other, like mother and daughter, yet they were only a few years apart in age.

They both had solemn expressions on their face but they continued to face be, unblinking and not even attempting to get out the way.

"CHARLOTTE!! CRYSTAL!! QUICKLY MOVE!!!" I scream out in a tone unbefitting of me in an attempt to save their lives and not spill needless blood.

It was mere moments before impact and it felt like the air around the boy and I had reached temperatures in the upper echelons of thousands. We were going to hit the ground with energy and force equal to a multi-ton meteorite.

Just before we hit I see the world go into slow motion. Everyone in the crowd move their heads to look at me and the boy. It looked like a normal speed at which they all moved but I remember that the world was slowed down right now and that it would have been at a speed fast enough to break necks with ease.

Everyone, including Crystal and Charlotte suddenly put an eerie and ominous smile onto their faces. A horrifying chill echoed through my spine.

"I'm so sorry Charlie!" It was my Mum. She was beside me as I lay in my hospital bed. She played with my hair as my eyes remained closed. My left arm was missing and I was unconscious, "I don't know what happened. One moment I had looked towards the forest beside the car, then the next..." Her sentence had blurred into an unintelligible mutter as it went on. Her tears were streaming down her face into my bed and onto face.

Looking closely at my face, I could see a tear forming but somehow I could feel it while looking at myself.

And then I hit. The pavement seemingly became paper as the boy and sunk through it. Cracks forming around as as Crystal and Charlotte were disintegrated.

Light formed on contact with the ground and I saw the crowd and the boy's body melt away with the light and intense heat.

The pavement melted into a white hot magma while at the edge if the pavement I watch as pieces of the pavement get ripped off the ground and carried with the shock-wave.

The shock-wave reaches the building and watch as the windows all instantaneously shatter spreading faster than the shock-wave moves.

Under such an intense force such as the shock-wave, I watch as the building melt and bend after a few more moments the buildings that tower kilometers high were ripped off their foundations.

The shock-wave moving out in a perfect sphere, I watch as everything that isn't fast or strong enough to surf the tremendous force melt as soon as it enters the bubble of void and heat.

A few seconds later and the entire city for several kilometers has been flattened and reduced to a crater with molten metals and stone.

This was what it was like to be an atomic weapon, right?

It was horrible.

******

'4:32 AM'

So early... I was covered in a cold sweat and my heart was racing. What was I dreaming about again? It always happens like this. Why don't we remember our dreams. It was probably a really good one too...

I stretch my arms behind my head and return to a sleeping position. I turn to the side and feel something warm. I open my eyes in a slight panic and from the soft green glow of my digital clock I see a small form in front of me.

Blonde hair. Mostly straight, slightly wavy but still long. Completely under the blanket apart from the hair, and slightly lifting up the blanket I had confirmed that it was indeed as I had suspected, Charlotte.

Charlotte was hugging herself while she had her had partly under the pillow and part of her body touching me. Knowing that I was nearing the point of no return, I quickly got up, being careful not to disturb her, heading to the lounge room.

Opening the closet I grab one of the spare blankets I hope on the couch and get comfortable with the blanket. In a few minutes, I was all but gone.

***End of Chapter***

I hope you enjoyed everyone! I really should have done more perspectives but I hope you enjoyed this regardless. For some reason I'm really feeling in the mood now so I think I'm going to start the next chapter!